My Hero Studios
by Eternal Love Song
Summary: AU where "My Hero Academia" is an in universe tv show and the characters are all actors. This what they are all really like and they interact when they aren't on screen.
1. Before The Opening Credits

"Good morning everyone," Izuku greeted his coworkers as he entered the break room on set. The room was half filled with co workers, both known and unknown. This wasn't his first time on set, but it was his first time getting to act on such a big project. Since he was little he'd been allowed on set as an extra or just able to hang around and watch how everything worked, so he was fairly comfortable here. He walked to one the tables and sat beside his best friend, who slid him a cup of coffee.

"Hey, Izuku. How's it going?" Katsuki asked.

"Whoa," Izuku exclaimed without meaning too. He had noticed that his friend was already in costume, but he was still stunned for a moment seeing the red of his friend's eyes. Now that he was paying attention, the spike hair was a little odd on him as well. "Are those contacts?"

"Yeah, they want me to wear them on the set." Katsuki answered. He smiled sheepishly as he finger a stiff lock of his hair. "I look awful, don't I?"

"N-no!" Izuku protested right away. "Not... terrible." He hastily brought the cup of coffee to lips, extremely grateful when it didn't burn his tongue.

Katsuki noticed the obvious avoidance and sighed. "You don't have to lie."

"I was just surprised," Izuku said. "You look, um, kinda... scary." He knew that his friend could be kinda sensitive sometimes and he didn't want to be too harsh.

"He's supposed to look scary." Katsuki's older cousin, Yuu Takeyama, said as she dropped into a seat next to him. "He is playing a villain after all."

"He's not a villain," Izuku protested. "Just an... anti hero, maybe..."

Katsuki sighed again. He wrapped his hand around his own cup of coffee and started forlornly into the dark liquid. "Maybe I shouldn't have taken this role."

"Too late to back out now," She told him. "Besides, you're a good actor. You got this."

Izuku placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "You'll do great."

Katsuki smiled at him. "Thanks man."

"This is so stupid," The leading lady, Ochako Uraraka, groaned as she stormed across the room. "I'm the most important girl in the cast! Why do I only get, like, ten seconds in this opening sequence?"

"This is a large cast," One of the others explained, Izuku wasn't sure who since he hadn't had the chance to meet the entire cast yet. "We have to split the time evenly."

"I'm the leading lady! I should have just as much time as he does," She pointed to Izuku. She had one hand on her hip, pouting as she looked around at them all. Ochako was a bit of a diva, he had learned, but it was mostly harmless.

"Calm down all!" A loud booming voice said as the door was thrown open. "Because I AM HERE!" Posing in the door way was "All Might", already dressed in his hero costume and looking larger than life. Behind him, his smaller twin brother Toshinori pushed past him to enter the room.

"Would you give it a rest," Toshinori said. He looked mildly annoyed by his twins actions, but the larger man didn't seem affected in the slightest.

"But this is so much fun!" He replied. Izuku wasn't sure what his name was, since he insisted that everyone just call him All Might. Izuku was okay with that. It was easier than having to remember even more names.

"That guy's gonna be a joy to work with," Takeyama said with a smirk. "I'm kinda glad that I'll be on set for it."

"Huh? Did you get a bigger part?" Izuku asked.

"No, I'll just looking out for my little cousin," She replied, playfully poking Katsuki's cheek with a smile.

He returned the smile as he pushed her hand away. "Hey, cut it out. I'm trying to get in character."

"We're just shooting the opening, you'll be fine." She replied.

"Hey, anyone else feel like their costume is kinda... weird?" The guy that spoke was already in costume. He had spiked red hair and Izuku was pretty sure the name was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't place it.

"What's wrong with it?" One of the girls asked. She was wearing a red leotard and had her hair pulled into a spiky ponytail. "Does it not fit? Is something broken?"

"That's not what I meant."

"What did you mean?"

The guy sighed. "Nothing, forget I mentioned it."

There was a knock on the door before his dad stuck his head in the room. Their eyes met and Hisashi smiled at him. His dad was the director of this project and Izuku was happy that he was finally getting the chance to be in one of his father's productions. "Is everyone present?"

"They wouldn't be able to say if they weren't," Toshinori answered.

"Forgive me for thinking some of you may have answered on behalf of your coworkers," Hisashi said.

"I think we're all here, dad." Izuku answered.

Takeyama pinch his side lightly. "Be professional," She scolded him with a smile.

"Right," Izuku replied with an eye roll. "We're all here, Director."

"Thank you, Izuku." His dad smiled.

"I have some concerns about my character," Ochako spoke up. "Namely, I don't think she's getting the attention that she deserves."

"All Might, Izuku, I need you two on set first," Hisashi said. He spared the leading lady a glance as he added, "I'll listen to your concerns while they get ready."

Ochako smiled. Izuku wasn't sure if the expression was cute or smug. He rose from the table, bumping Katsuki as he did so. "Wish me luck."

"You don't need it," Katsuki replied. "But good luck anyway."

Izuku smiled brightly as he went off toward the set.

 **A/N: I got the idea for Bakugo and Mount Lady being cousins from a tumblr found found here:** post/158773333838/a-concept-bakugou-and-mt-lady-being-shitty


	2. Episode One and Two

Izuku entered the set to the sound of All Might laughing. His co star wasn't in the room and Izuku was a little surprised that the sound carried so far, as well as impressed at the natural boom of the man's voice. He had a feeling that this would become a common occurrence, knowing how energetic and boisterous the larger twin was. Izuku followed the sound to the dressing room that the two twins shared.

"Would you cut that out," Toshinori said in a grumpy voice.

Izuku poked his head into the room, peering curiously through the open doorway. All Might had his back to the door as Toshinori sat in one of the chairs being attended to by one of the make up artist. He was shirtless and the girl was on her knees as she worked to create his scar. She was pale with silver colored hair and seemed to shrink into herself despite being ignored by everyone in the room.

All Might pouted at his twin. "But I have to practice, Toshi. I have to tell the world that I Am Here!" He insisted with his booming voice.

"Would you please cut the theatrics?" Toshinori rolled his eye.

"But! But! IT's my character!" All Might whined.

"Save it for the stage, you big idiot."

Toshi... I need to practice!"

"Ugh," Toshinori groaned. "It's too early for this."

Watching the two of them together was almost a show in and of itself. It was a shame that the two of them would never be on screen together.

The door was opened wider as Takeyama came up behind him. "Are you two at it again?" The twins turned toward the door, Toshinori looking unamused and All Might smiling brightly. Izuku waved at them. "The director wants you on set."

"I'm not the one holding us up," Toshinori said. He pointed to the make up artist on her knees that was still working on the scar. The pale, silver haired girl shrank into herself.

"Ah. I'm sorry." Her voice was so low that it sounded like she was whispering. "I'm trying to go as fast as I can. I didn't mean to hold up the production. I just wanted to do my best, please forgive my slow work and lack of skills and-"

"Ugh, don't do this again." Toshinori groaned. "I swear, you say even so much as look at her, she becomes a waterfall of apologies."

The girl's hands began to shake as they hovered in front of the scar she'd created on Toshinori's skin. "Sorry, sorry. Sorry. Sorry..." The whispered apologies continued to spill from her lips.

"Uh..." Takeyama and Izuku exchanged a look.

"Don't be so shaken, Reiko!" All Might told her, placing a hand on her shoulder as he attempted to comfort the girl. She didn't jump or move, but she fell silent instantly. "My brother is just grumpy. Do your best to ignore him. He is not a morning person."

"Just finish the scar," Toshinori groaned impatiently.

"Yes, sorry..." The girl said softly.

"And don't start that up again."

The girl, Reiko, fell silent and went back to work.

"You catch more flies with honey, Toshi." All Might told him.

Toshinori looked at his brother like he was an idiot. "Why would I want to catch flies?"

"It's an expression."

"It's dumb."

Takeyama sighed. "They're like this every time, I swear. " She looked to Izuku and smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, they need us on set."

"Right behind you," Izuku told her. "See you two on set." He said over his shoulder.

"See you soon, young Midoriya!" All Might proclaimed.

"You don't have to wait for me."

"But Toshi!"

Izuku shook his head at the continued theatrics.

"See you soon, kid." Toshinori said.

* * *

Katsuki hugged him as soon as they were done filming the classroom scene. Izuku gave him an indulgent smile, patting his friend on the back. "Come on, Katsuki. I'm fine, I promise."

"I didn't meant it, you know." Katsuki said softly.

"I know you didn't," Izuku assured him. "It's fine."

"I can't believe I'm playing a character that would tell someone to kill themselves." Katsuki reluctantly released Izuku from his hug. "I thought we were supposed to be heroes."

"Yeah, that's really messed up." Takeyama said. She walked over to her cousin, placing a hand on his head. "What's the audience for this show?"

"I'll talk to the writers about it," Hisashi said.

Katsuki wrapped his arms around his cousin's waist and she pulled back slightly and blanched. "Come on, kid, don't cling." She said softly.

Izuku laughed. "Kacchan is too soft for this role."

Katsuki whipped his head around to look at Izuku with an expression of wide eyed devastation. "You can't call me that! It's sullied with memories of abuse!"

"What? But it's kinda cute," Izuku teased.

"No way," Katsuki insisted. "If you call me that, I'll always be thinking about that time I told you to kill yourself."

"That wasn't real, Katsu." Izuku reminded.

"My feelings about it are!"

Izuku and Takeyama both sighed and shrugged. Hisashi walked over to the group and placed a hand on Katsuki's shoulder. "We're filming All Might's scene next. You kids take a break."

"Thanks, dad." Izuku said.

"Oh, and Katsuki?" His best friend stopped and gave the director a questioning look, waiting for his statement. "I know it's hard, but you need to get a little more in character. You smiled a little too much in that previous scene. You need to get mean, get grumpy. Don't think of Izu as your best friend."

Katsuki looked dejected, but nodded. "I'll try."

"That a boy!" Hisashi pat him on the back. "Izu, your mom made a lunch run while you were filming. It should be in dressing your room."

"Alright."

* * *

"Ugh. This is absolutely disgusting." Katsuki groaned as he flung muck off of himself. The set was a mess from the thick muck of the 'villain' that had held them captive and the mess was everywhere.

Hisashi had an amused grin on his face as he looked them over. "That's why it was the last scene of the day, so that you can clean up directly afterwards."

"Yeah, this was pretty messy," All Might agreed, wiping the fake blood from his mouth.

"You all did great today!" Hisashi congratulated.

"Some of us did better than others," Takeyama said as she sauntered over to one of her co workers and leaned on his shoulder. "Kamui Wood, right?"

The man rubbed the back of his head nervously, still heavily covered in his brown make up. "Um, it's Shinji Nishiya."

"Let's not get that personal, Kamui."

"Huh?" The man floundered, peering at Takeyama more closely. "But we- weren't you... um..."

Takeyama leaned closer to him. "Just call me Mount Lady, okay?" She winked.

"That's my exit signal," Izuku announced. He looped an arm through his best friend's and tugged him along. "Let's get out of here before we have to watch your cousin flirt."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Katsuki said. "This stuff is rank."

"It's cool, right?" They both jumped as a girl wearing goggles leaped into their path, standing much too close to their faces. "You're totally impressed, right?"

"Uh..."

"Who?"

"I'm The Great Special Effects Technician, Mei!" She announced proudly, complete with small fire works going off behind her.

"Don't waste supplies Mei," Someone scolded halfheartedly.

"Look, we just wanna take a shower right now," Izuku told her, attempting to side step the girl and her display.

"Of course they don't appreciate our talents!" Another voice exclaimed before a boy was suddenly standing in their faces and yelling at them. "They think that they're too good to talk to the rest of us. First episode hasn't even aired yet and already their egos have eclipsed all aspects of their personalities."

"You're going overboard, Monoma," The same voice from earlier said.

"We are the technical geniuses of this project and we deserve respect!" The boy, Monoma, declared loudly.

Katsuki and Izuku looked at each other with matching dumbfounded expressions. Why was everyone working on this project so... eccentric?

Mei squeezed herself between the two boys. "So, wanna hear how we did it?" She asked.

"I just want a shower," Katsuki said helplessly. Judging from the smudges and smears all over her, Izuku had a feeling that she would not be able to relate to the feeling.

Monoma was the one to respond. "What? Afraid that the explanation will go over your heads? That it will be too much for your feeble minds to comprehend? Is our greatness just too astonishingly mind boggling for you? The stars of the show afraid of letting anyone else have a little attention."

Izuku gave them both an unimpressed stare. He was too filthy and too patient to even attempt to humor them. He looped his arm with Katsuki's once more and began to pull him as he walked off. "I'm going to my dressing room and I'm going to take a shower," Izuku stated firmly. "I don't care what the two of you do. You can stad outside the stall and rant at me the entire time if you want, but I'm taking my shower."

Monoma looked like he was going to start up again and Izuku was already annoyed anout it, but Mei beat him to the punch. She launched into a long, excited explanation of what special effects she used and how she used them, and Izuku honestly just tuned her out while he made his way to the dressing rooms. He refused to be furthered delayed.

Katsuki was able to leave for his own dressing room without being followed. Izuku was glad. He was pretty sure his best friend would be too considerate to kick her out and shower if he was followed, or else be delayed half an hour while he tried to close the door on her without being rude. After the day he's had, Katsuki deserved to be able to shower in peace. Izuku just didn't care, not at the moment.

That was how Izuku ended up showering to the sounds of a pyrotechnics lecture and, incidentally, how he became friends with Mei.


	3. Episode Three

The set was Izuku's personal disaster. His mother was on set with him and his father had gotten a much slower start due to talking with her. That wouldn't usually be bad. In fact, that would usually be great. Izuku loved seeing his parents being cute on set together. His father ended up in a better mood throughout the day because she usually brought him breakfast or lunch, they chatted so amiably that it could often life the mood of those around them, and it was just nice to have them in the same place for longer periods of time than normal. His father was really busy and this was a neat way to circumvent that.

No, the problem was that from the moment he stepped foot in the studio, he had people talking at him. Mei found him from the moment he entered to launch into a long lecture about the special effects that would need to be used in the episode, Ochako showed up ranting about how small her part in the episode would be, one of the actors was the loudest person that Izuku had ever heard in his life, and that only got worse when All Might showed up and the two started talking to each other.

"I'm gonna die," Izuku groaned to himself. He curled up in a ball and covered his ears with his hands.

"Hey! Are you listening to me?" Ochako demanded. She was glaring at down at him, both of them ignoring the constant stream of words that were falling from Mei's mouth as she gestured enthusiastically. Mei had the the excuse that he wasn't looking at them, but he wondered that that their talking didn't seem to deter at all.

"No!" Izuku answered promptly. "I don't know why you're telling me this. I'm not in charge of the script or casting or literally anything that could help you."

"The director is your dad!" She said. She placed her hands on her hips as she continued to glare at him. "Tell him that I should have a bigger part!"

"Why would I do that? I haven't even seen you act yet," He replied. He was getting a headache. This could have been a good day, _should_ have been a good day, but instead he was going to die an early death. Mei was still talking to him, despite the fact that he was covering his ears and having a conversation with another person. Was she even paying attention at this point? Was she just on autopilot? And why was All Might's voice so loud? Who was this equally loud blonde that he was blabbing to?

"That's part of the problem!" She yelled, adding to Izuku's headache. "I should have been in the first episode or at least had a large cameo so that the audience could feel my presence."

"You're just the love interest!" He argued. He shouldn't be participating in this conversation. There was no merit to it. It was just really hard to ignore someone being so in his face.

"Just the love interest!" She repeated in obvious and overstated offense. "I'll tell you what-" She cut off when Katsuki appeared behind her, grabbing her head in one hand and pulling her back. He also slapped a hand over Mei's mouth, lowering the noise level in the room somewhat.

"Don't crowd him like that," Katsuki said. "And your yelling is hurting his ears."

Ochako maneuvered out of his grasp. It wasn't hard since Katsuki was only trying to get her attention and not hold her in place, and she spun on her heel to glare at him. "Who are you to tell me what to do?"

"I'm his best friend," Katsuki said simply. "And harassing him won't get you a better part."

"I'm not harassing him," Ochako replied. "I was talking to him. We were having a conversation."

"He was covering his ears," Katsuki pointed out. "You didn't think that was a hint that you were too loud or that he didn't want to talk to you?"

Ochako's face reddened. "I... Well..." She seemed to finally realize that she had over stepped or maybe she was just embarrassed to be called out on it. Izuku couldn't tell and didn't feel like trying to decipher her motives.

Mei moved Katsuki's hand away from her mouth. "I bet I have some stage props that could help with that," She said.

"Please," Izuku replied.

"I'll be right back," Mei said as she went off.

Izuku let out a relieved sigh. "Thank god." He smiled at Katsuki. "Thank you."

Katsuki sat down beside him. "What's up? You look like you're loosing it."

"Everything is conspiring against me today," Izuku explained. "My eardrums are gonna explode."

"I wasn't that loud..." Ochako insisted quietly.

They both looked up at her with questioning expressions. Katsuki was the one to voice what both boys were thinking. "Did you want something else?"

She looked like she definitely wanted to say more, but giving the reactions they'd had to her, she opted to just shake her head and walk off. Izuku let his head rest of his best friends shoulder. "Hey. Wanna be my understudy?" Izuku asked. "I think I need to go home early before this day kills me."

Katsuki smiled. "Sorry dude. You're gonna have to tough it out on your own."

Izuku grumbled a little.

Mei showed up with earplugs, making her raise in his esteem significantly. "Thanks." He told her.

"No problem." She smiled at him before going off. Well, at least she was capable of learning, even if she did seem oblivious to most forms of social etiquette.

* * *

Re-shoots was the word of the day. Izuku let out a loud noise as protest as his new least favorite co-star began rapidly chopping the air and making very aggressive hand gestures, forever making Izuku unsure whether it was a character action that he was repeating or a normal habit that he'd mixed up with his character.

"Once more, please. I know that I can get that done better." Choppy Arms insisted. Izuku still hadn't learned his name and it honestly amused him more to call him by a nickname anyway. Especially when he was single handedly holding them up from being done for the day.

"Yeah! Let's go!" The loudest actor ever agreed with him. This guy, whose voice was actually louder than All Might, which was one of the most unfortunate things that Izuku would ever have to deal with it on set, was playing a character called Present Mic. Izuku knew this because he had the line in which the character was named. A line which he had been made to repeat six or seven times now. That name was possibly as engraved in his voice as the voice was.

"This is the eight time," Katsuki objected. "It's one line. You don't need to keep doing it." It wasn't, strictly speaking, one line, but it was close enough. Ith should not take this many times to get such a small part correct and Izuku wasn't convinced that it did. Whatever Choppy thought he was doing wrong, Izuku couldn't see it.

"I just feel that my performance could be improved upon," Choppy Hands insisted. "I would hate to bring down the entire production because I gave a sub par performance."

"Wha?" Katsuki looked at him like he was crazy. "It's one line!"

"One should always put their best foot forward, no matter how small the endeavor." He insisted. He said this with such earnestness and determination that Izuku was pretty he was sincere. That was probably worse than if he was doing this for vanity or attention seeking. This meant he was more likely to repeat his behavior later. Izuku wanted exactly no part in that.

"Ugh," Izuku groaned loudly. "Director, may I be excused? This is dumb."

Hisashi smiled at him, amused by his son's antics but trying not to laugh. Choppy Hands frowned, of course, but Izuku could not care less about upsetting Choppy at this point. Not when they'd had to do so many re-shoots. So many unneeded re-shoots! Izuku was not certain why his father was indulging this.

"I do think we've done enough re-shoots," Hisashi said kindly. "We can look over the footage and tell you which performance was best, Iida."

Choppy bowed deeply, stiffly. Izuku was not certain that he wasn't actually just a robot created just for this part. In fact, that would explain why his father was indulging the re-shoots. The robot needed to learn human responses and reactions better, this was the perfect training environment. "Thank you very much, it is an honor-" Izuku tuned out the rest. He turned to look at Katsuki.

"We're gonna have to work with this guy all the time," Izuku complained. He would wait until later to share his robot theory, in case it was a secret. "Can you imagine if he's like this every time?"

"Your dad wouldn't let him do this every time," Katsuki said. His face did not look certain however.

"What's this? One of the stars uncertain of their performance?" Izuku let his head fall into Katsuki's shoulder instead of face planting on the desk at the sound of Monoma's voice. Izuku hoped that if they didn't feed into it the boy would get bored or deflate, but of course Choppy Arms would engage.

"Uncertainty is a sign that I care deeply about the structure and quality of this project!"

"Oh? You're such a narcissist that you think this entire project hinges on your shoulders alone?" Monoma questioned. He was standing face to face with Karate Chop, which Izuku thought put him at a heavy disadvantage. Not only was Karate Chop taller, but he had kung fu grip and could take Monoma out with one well placed action. It was sadly unlikely that Choppy would use that move, but there was always a chance that it could happen by accident. How strong were robots?

Hisashi sighed as he surveyed the conflict. "Izuku. Katsuki. You can take a break. I'll deal with things here."

"Thank you!" Izuku said, standing up immediately. Katsuki laughed as he followed suit. "I need rest before I break all my limbs."

"That's not until next episode," Hisashi told him.

"Yeah, at this rate it will be," Izuku laughed. "Let's get out of here before someone else shows up to yell."

"As long as we're airing our grievances," Ochako said from the sidelines, quickly making her way forward.

"Nope, no, not this time," Izuku said as he grabbed Katsuki's sleeve and power walked away. "I refuse to be privy to more arguing today."

"Everyone is really worked up today," Katsuki pointed out. "I'm kinda surprised."

"I'm kind of annoyed," Izuku said. "This is only the third episode and I've had like five different people yelling in my direction. If this is what the whole shoot will be like, I hope they kill off my character and let Divako become the main character."

"I'm sure it won't be this bad all the time," Katsuki said. "All of our co-stars can't be crazy."

"Izuku!" Mei waved at him. "Hey! Hey! You're done right?"

Izuku stopped in his tracks. Her smile was as wide as his impending sense of dread. "They better not be," Izuku said softly. He let go of his friends sleeve as the resignation washed over him. "Because I am slowly losing all hope here."

Katsuki placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, but he knew that it wouldn't stop the coming lecture as Mei approached.


	4. Episode Four

The studio was very crowded when Izuku arrived with his mother. There were more than double the usual amount of people on set and while he knew that the cast was going to end up being large, he was certain that it wasn't supposed to be this large. Even the usual break room was overflowing with people when he arrived.

"Izuku! Inko!" Hisashi called out to them, but it was a while before they could see him through the crowd. Once Hisashi reached them he hugged his son and placed a quick kiss on his wife's lips.

"Why is it so crowded today, Hisashi?" Inko questioned. She had a small basket resting on her arm where she'd brought a picnics worth of food for breakfast. She knew that today was supposed to be a pretty busy day, but Izuku still thought that she'd overdone it on the food.

"We need a lot of extras today," Hisashi answered. "The backstage team can fill some of the roles, but we needed to have a crowd ready. You'll have to go to Izuku's dressing room if you want any peace."

"Alright, then." Inko answered. "Nothing wrong with it being a little livelier." She smiled at him and Izuku could see some of the tension releasing from Hisashi's shoulders. Inko was one of the most positive people that Izuku knew. It was very odd watching her on set being anxious and worried all the time, when Izuku felt like his mother almost never worried about anything.

Hisashi smiled at her. "It's always nice to have you on set, Inko." Some days Izuku wished that he could take over as Director just to let his parents have some time alone. They looked so happy to be in each other's company that it was a shame that it didn't happen all that often. Maybe it was enough to have his family able to visit in and be able to bring them into his world. He seemed genuinely happy when he was working and it only increased when they were both around.

"Hey dad, has Katsuki showed up yet?" Izuku asked. He didn't like his chances of finding his best friend among so many people. Izuku wasn't even certain he'd be able to make it to his dressing room without being turned around in the crowd.

"Yeah, he and Takeyama should be in his dressing room." Hisashi answered.

"Cool." Izuku turned to his mom. "I'm gonna invite them for breakfast, okay mom?"

"Sure thing, sweetie." Inko answered. She turned her attention to Hisashi. "Do you have time to eat with us before you start? I brought quite a bit of food."

"I supposed the special effects team would appreciate having more time to work." He agreed.

Letting them have time to themselves while he went off to find his best friend was the least that Izuku could do. Still, it took longer than Izuku was expecting to get through the crowd. He passed a lot of people that were getting hair touched up or make up added. One person was having prosthetic limbs adjusted in a fan around their body! Izuku wondered how full the actual make up rooms must have been for something that complicated to be done just off to the side. He wondered if that guy was another extra or not. His memory of the full cast was fuzzy. He'd only met most of them once for the opening and ending credits sequence and that had been a while ago.

He was surprised to find Katsuki standing in the doorway to Ochako's dressing room, though from his expression Izuku was fairly certain that he didn't really want to be there. Ochako was smiling at him brightly, her hands framing her face as she asked, "What do you think?"

"I think it looks fine," Katsuki said.

"It's not supposed to look fine," Ochako replied with a frown. "It's supposed to look cute. I have to keep this look for the entire show, you know."

"I'm sure she knows what she's doing," Katsuki said, gesturing to the make up artist. Once Izuku moved closer, he could see that it was Reiko. Izuku was starting to feel a little bad for the girl, first having to deal with Toshinori being grumpy and nor Ochako's diva tendencies.

"I'm sorry if it isn't up to your standards," Reiko said quietly.

"You don't need to apologize," Katsuki said. "It looks fine. It looks nice!"

"You can't say that it looks fine and nice," Ochako complained, planting her arms on her hips. "It's one or the other. This is my time to shine! I'm finally gonna be in the whole episode and you're trying to ruin my chances with lackluster advice."

Katsuki frowned. "You're the one that asked for my help."

"I'm starting to regret it," She said with a sigh and a hair flip.

Katsuki gave her a flat stare. "Fine, I'm leaving."

Ochako's eyes widened with panic. "No wait!"

Katsuki turned to see Izuku standing not far from them and the blond gave him a tired smile. He approached at a tired pace. "Hey, Izuku."

"Hey, Katsuki. Having trouble?" Izuku asked with a grin. His friend was sometimes too polite to say no and it often amused Izuku to see what he could get himself into. Katsuki just sighed deeply.

"Izuku!" Ochako said cheerfully. She stuck her face out of the door with a bright smile as she asked, "How do I look?"

"Like you're trying too hard," Izuku answered quickly.

Her expression fell immediately. Her frown became a glare and then a pout as she said, "I meant the make up." She pointed to her cheeks with both hands, an pose that was actually pretty cute, but was completely undermined by her expression. "I'm trying to find the cutest color. I have to wear this for the rest of my life, you know."

"The rest of the show is not the rest of your life," Izuku corrected.

"That depends on how popular the show is," She argued.

"No show last forever."

She made a dissatisfied noise and stomped her foot. "Just help me out here."

Izuku sighed and shook his head. "You want my honest opinion, Ochako?"

"Yes, absolutely." She told him, smiling and standing right in front of him. She looked at him expectantly and Izuku placed his hands on her shoulders.

"My honest opinion," He said, "Is for you to shut up and let Reiko do her job. She gets paid to do this, I'm pretty sure she knows what she's doing."

Ochako's face fell into a frown. "Your opinion sucks," She told him.

Izuku shrugged as he removed his hands from her shoulders. "You asked." He turned back to face Katsuki. "I came to invite you to breakfast in my room."

"Thanks."

Ochako stormed back into her room and tossed herself back into the make up chair that was in front of the mirror. "Get rid of all of this and do it over," She said.

"I'm sorry that I failed your expectations," Reiko said.

"Whatever. You can do whatever color you want this time, I guess, but if you fail me-"

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry that I'm not good enough to live up to your expectations. I'll try harder. I'll keep trying harder even though I'll never be worthy of your trust in my skill. I'm sorry that my skills are so very paltry-"

"Am I going to have to listen to this while you do my make up again?" Ochako asked with a groan.

"I'm sorry. I'll be silent. I didn't mean to-"

"Ugh!" Ochako's dismayed groan followed them down the hall.

"Man, Reiko is always so stressed out." Izuku said. Though he couldn't blame her, having to work with the most difficult cast members so far. Or at least, the two that were in most opposition to her own personality.

"I'm not sure who I feel worse for," Katsuki said. "Hey, did you notice all the robots around here? I think they're supposed to be stage props, but they actually move. It's weird."

"Speaking of robots," Izuku said. "Did I tell you my theory about Choppy Arms?"

* * *

"Aoyama, stop looking directly at the camera," Hisashi called out. Izuku didn't remember who 'Aoyama' was by name, but there was only one person that kept looking directly at the camera. Izuku sighed and took the opportunity to shake out his stiff muscles.

"But the camera keeps looking directly at me," Aoyama replied with a wink to the cameraman. Or maybe to the camera itself, Izuku wasn't sure. The guy was either very narsisistic or very flirty. "You can't expect me to ignore such a thing, can you?"

"Yes, you can. Literally everyone else can do it." Hisashi sighed. "Let's take five before we try again."

"Why do you keep insisting upon ruining everyone else's hard work?" Choppy Arms asked, scolding Aoyama and threatening to use his Kung Fu grip. Izuku was kinda hoping he would. He wanted to see what would happen. Maybe the guy had a rocket fist, too? He should ask Mei. If anyone would know, it had to be her, right?

"Who, me? I've never ruined anything a day in my life," He replied, turning to wink at the camera once more.

"We aren't even filming right now?" Karate Chop said.

"Midoriya," Reiko's soft voice called out. "I need to take you to make up... for the next scene... I'm sorry to have to bother you about this-"

"No, no, it's fine Reiko." Izuku said, cutting off what he expected would have been a lengthy tirade of apologies and self deprecation. He weaved through the crowded studio on his own for a few minutes, pausing every time any one bumped into Reiko or crossed her path and she erupted into apologies and excuses, before he just took her by the shoulders and steered her himself. Walking with her was ten times slower and more stressful with a crowded studio and he really didn't want to drag things out.

"You know that you don't have to do that, right?" He asked.

"Do what?" Reiko questioned. He was almost surprised how malleable she made herself in his hands, but once he considered her personality, the surprise evaporated. He should be more surprised that she wasn't apologizing for slowing him down or something.

"Apologize all the time."

She sent him a questioning look over her shoulder, which was fine since he was controlling where she went anyway. "But I have to show remorse and repentance for my incompetence." The straight faced seriousness of that statement was almost too much for Izuku to take in.

"I think you need to redefine your idea of incompetence." Izuku told her.

"I'm sor-"

"Please do not apologize to me, Reiko." He tried to contain the exasperation in his voice, since it would absolutely undermine his point. "It's fine. Nothing is wrong. No one made any mistakes, I promise you."

She didn't look like she believed him, but she faced forward and resisted the urge to pour out anymore apologies. It was probably the most that he could ask for. He left himself feel the relief of this single victory.

* * *

Katsuki and Mei were both in his dressing room when Izuku entered. The two were sitting side by side on the couch with a spread of take out containers on the table before them. Katsuki nodded at him, but Mei seemed to be too busy stuffing her face to acknowledge him right away. He released Reiko's shoulders and she went straight to the dressing table to gather and arrange supplied as Izuku looked at his friends with confusion. "Party in my own dressing room and no one invited me?" He asked.

"Lunch break for Mei," Katsuki said, pointing to her with his chopsticks as he ate from a take out container. "We saved you some, if you want." He pointed to a bag sitting beside him.

"Thanks, but I'll save it for later." Izuku answered. He went to sit in the make up chair while he waited for Reiko to get things set up. "What are you two doing together?"

"I ran into her when she went on a lunch run and she pulled me along with her," Katsuki said. Yeah, that sounded like Mei.

"Why are you in my dressing room and not yours?" Izuku questioned.

Katsuki shrugged. "She wanted to talk to you, I guess."

Mei finally stopped trying to inhale her food and it was only after she placed the container on the table that he realized she stopped because it was empty. She took a breath and leaned back against the couch. "That's the first thing I've eaten all day," She said in a lazy content voice.

Katsuki gaped. "Are you kidding? How long have you been here?" He demanded.

Mei shrugged. "Not sure. Monoma didn't get here 'til six and I'd already been here a while by that point."

"How did you even get in that early?" Izuku asked.

"The department head gave me a key so I could get more work done," Mei answered with another shrug. "Monoma made a lot of the parts, well Kendo helped too, but I had to do the complicated stuff for the ones that are supposed to move."

Katsuki and Izuku shared a disbelieving look before Katsuki said, "Wow. You're actually kind of amazing Mei."

"What do you mean actually?" She frowned at them. "Are you implying that I wasn't amazing before?"

"I need you to take your shirt off," Reiko said quietly.

Izuku complied without protest and she leaned over his arm. "So, hey, do you know about Kung Fu grip?" Mei gave him a confused look, so he explained further. "The guy that moved like a robot and chops his arms all over the place."

"Oh! Him. What about him?" Mei asked.

"Did you make him?"

"No..." Mei answered slowly, tilting her head in confusion. Then her eyes lit up and she slid forward, perching on the edge on the couch. "Wait, you don't mean..."

"I saw him get really upset at the idea of having to smash those robots earlier," Katsuki said thoughtfully. "Your theory has some weight, Izuku."

Mei's eyes lit up. "This needs investigation! I have to ask Monoma if he knows anything."

"Speaking of, how do you hang out with him and not find him ob-" Katsuki stopped himself mid word and Izuku smiled at the idea that his best friend was trying to find a replacement for the word obnoxious. Katsuki chose a different statement as he asked, "Isn't he a little much?"

"He's not so bad after a while," Mei said, waving off the comment. "We work well together. He's really talented and he works on more than just special effects like I do, so it's easy to coordinate with him. He's like a self appointed captain. He gets the job done."

"I'm not surprised that the two of you get along," Izuku said. "Your egos probably bounce off of each other like an off tune echo chamber."

"You keep saying these unflattering things about me, I can't help but notice," Mei said calmly.

"I'm surprised you noticed," Izuku replied.

"I think that you're feeling neglected because I've been busy all day," Mei told him.

"You'd be wrong about that," Izuku said.

"As long as I've got you here," Mei started with a bright smile, but Katsuki placed a hand over her mouth.

"Aren't you supposed to be on a break?" He asked. "How can you want to talk about work when this is the first time you've eaten all day?"

She pulled Katsuki's hands off with a pout. "Work will always be better than food," She said firmly.

"You're insane," Katsuki told her in a deadpan tone.

"It's not insane to sacrifice food, sleep, and freedom to better one's craft," She told them both firmly.

Katsuki and Izuku looked at each other before Izuku said, "Mei, yes it is."

She huffed. "Rest is for the weak."

"That's also what you say about safety precautions, showers, and government supervision." Reiko added quietly. Honestly, Izuku had almost forgotten that she was even there.

Mei shrugged. "They only hold you back."

"Mei," Izuku said. He waited until she looked at him before he spoke. "Never speak to me if you've gone more than twelve hours without a shower."

Mei groaned. "You're being as picky as Monoma now."

"Oh my god, are you less crazy than he is?" Katsuki asked. He looked at her with a horrified expression and Izuku couldn't help but express a similar look. "Maybe the robot is the most sane person in the cast."

"I refuse to accept that," Izuku said. "Do you know how miserable I would be if that were true?"

Mei cracked her neck before pushing herself off of the couch. "Well, I'm gonna go guys. I need to make sure nothing has malfunctioned."

"Do you ever stop?" Katsuki questioned.

"Not if I can help it," She told them. "See you guys!" She waved as she left the room.

"Reiko," Izuku said slowly. "I'm so glad that you're my make up artist."

The girl paused, looking at him with wide and surprised eyes. "Thank...you." There was a pause before she added. "I really don't deserve such extravagant praise, even though I am happy to recieve and do everything that I can to be worthy or compliments, I realize that I cannot ever-"

"You're ruining the moment, Reiko." Izuku said with a sigh.

* * *

"Alright. It's getting pretty late folks. Let's wrap it up." Hisashi called out. Inko approached him from the sidelines immediately, smiling and chatting with her husband now that he had a free moment.

Izuku sighed, pulling off his green screen gloves and rubbing his cheek. "You hit pretty hard, Ochako."

Ochako winced as she pulled herself off of the prop that she was laid across. "Sorry, I didn't mean to put so much force into it. I was a little nervous. Are you alright?" She asked.

"I'll be fine," He told her.

She smiled at him apologetically. She looked as cute as her character was supposed to and he was kind of impressed. It made it easier to fake having a crush on her. "Um, do you need..." She made a gesture toward his face.

"You'll never get anywhere if something like that can bring you down!" Yelled a voice from the sidelines.

"Leave him alone, Monoma." Someone's exasperated reply quickly followed.

Izuku shook his head and turned toward his father. "Are we done here, dad?"

"Yeah, you kids can go." Hisashi answered. "I'll look over all the footage and call you in if there need to be reshoots later."

"Cool." Izuku answered. He stretched out his arms and legs while Ochako hovered around nervously. He looked at her with an expectant look. "Yes?"

"Um, I'm sorry for, uh, being kinda..." She played with her fingers as she searched for an appropriate word.

"Dramatic?" He offered. Which was much kinder than some of the other words that came to mind, but she really wasn't _that_ bad. Not in small doses. He planned to keep their interactions to as small a dose as he could, even once she was on set more. He didn't need more headaches. Listening to All Might and Present Mic talking to each other in character was bad enough, and All Might seemed to always want to be in character.

She flushed and pressed her lips together tightly, not pleased with his assessment but also not arguing. "Y-yeah, that."

"Don't worry about it," Izuku said. "Just tone it down, maybe."

"Y-yeah." She was still waiting around. Her eyes were on the ground and she was playing with her fingers nervously. Izuku couldn't be sure what she wanted, but he decided it would be less of a hassle not to wait around for it either way.

"Right. So, I gotta go," He said as he sprung up. "See ya!" He jogged off set, pretending not hear her when she called after him. He went toward the break room first, hoping to find something sweet to snack on. It was pretty late and a lot of the extras had cleared out, so he thought it should be safe.

He was wrong about that.

He found most of the "pro heroes" hanging out there. He heard Present Mic and All Might before he'd even rounded the corner, but their voices could be so loud that it was often hard to tell where it was coming from. They were almost speaking at a normal volume this time, which Izuku didn't think was possible, but it gave him hope for the future. The most alarming thing in the room was seeing Takeyama cornering Ectoplasm, dressed in her costume despite not even being needed on set today. Izuku wished that he could say that he couldn't believe what he was seeing, but he could. He absolutely could. It was the Kamui Woods situation all over again.

"So what do you look like underneath all that make up?" She purred.

Izuku pumped the breaks, sharp turned, and hit the acceleration in one smooth motion as he walked very quickly in the opposite directly. He remembered that he still had that take out that Mei and Katsuki had gotten him, and that would have to be enough. He was not watching his- _Katsuki's,_ he metally corrected himself- cousin flirting.

"Why do you always ruin everything?" Izuku mumbled to himself. He was pretty sure he'd seen a box of donuts on the table too. Takeyama was the worst. The absolutely worst.

It was a few minutes later that his mom popped her head into his dressing room to see him sullenly poking at his takeout container. "Izuku, are you ready to go?" She paused as she took in the scene before her and asked, "Izu... are you pouting?"

"I'm not!"


	5. Episode Five

Izuku was excited. Today was the first day they would start filming with the full cast present and that meant no more early mornings! Izuku wasn't much of a morning person and he was happy that he'd have more of a chance to sleep in. He still arrived at the studio fairly early, but now he had the chance to go back to sleep in his dressing room.

The rest of the staff would be busy. There were a lot of people that would need to be taken to makeup, some voice over that needed to be recorded, and probably other stuff that Izuku wasn't really interested in. Reiko would be having a busy morning, that was for sure.

There was coffee waiting for him when he woke up. He probably had Takeyama to thank for it. She always made coffee runs, since she was pretty much useless in the mornings without it. He silently thanked her, but he was pretty sure that he would forget by the time he actually saw her. He put on his costume, but he didn't bother to worry about his hair. Someone would want to drag him back into makeup later anyway.

He avoided the break room for a while, wandering around the studio to watch as everyone scurried about and made preparations. Things would be more organized after this, he was sure, once everyone got used to the new filming schedule, but for now it left him bored and wandering. That was how he ended up talking with some of the staff members, one of which was Itsuka Kendo.

Kendo was more in charge of tech effects, as opposed to the practical effects that Mei seemed to do. She ended up showing some of her work to Izuku as she explained what she did.

"Wait, you mean the principal is entirely CGI?" Izuku asked.

Itsuka laughed. "Here, let me show you." She gestured to the laptop in front of her. "I'm not entirely sure what he's supposed to be, I didn't come up with the design, but he's not human and it was decided that makeup wouldn't really do it justice." She displayed the image of the principal and showed a few minutes of where he'd been inserted into the show.

"What about the scenes where he's supposed to be with us?" he asked.

"They'll probably have markers for where you should look and he probably won't have too much of a screen presence," Itsuka explained. "The principal's not even the only one! Someone in your class is supposed to be green screened to be invisible."

"Really?" Izuku should probably start reading ahead in the script a little more.

The door to the room suddenly burst open, startling them both. "Oh? You didn't know such a simple thing as that? How self centered can you be?" Monoma yelled out.

Itsuka glared at him. "How many times do I have to tell you to stop barging into rooms?"

"Don't explain things to this simpleton?" Monoma went on. "He's clearly too self absorbed to pay attention to his other cast members!"

"Stop yelling, you idiot."

"You would think the star of the show would show more consideration-" Itsuka lunged out of her seat and grabbed Monoma, cutting him off.

"Stop doing this every time!" she demanded, shaking him in frustration. "I swear to god, I'll put you and Hatsume on a leash!"

As amusing as it was to watch, Izuku decided that he should attempt to grab something from the break room before filming started. "I'll see you around, Itsuka."

She briefly waved at him before continuing to scold Monoma. Izuku snickered as he left the room and closed the door behind him. Might as well leave them their privacy.

* * *

Ochako had a mission when she arrived at the studio. She dumped her things in her dressing room before marching to the main makeup room and bursting inside. "Reiko, I need you!"

Several people looked up, both those in chairs and those working on others. Ochako ignored all of them as looked around for Reiko. She spotted the silver haired girl styling some blonde's hair and immediately approached. She grabbed Reiko's hand and turned her around.

"Reiko! What are you doing? I need you! This is an emergency?" she insisted.

Reiko looked taken aback and resisted her pull. "Huh? But I'm already..."

"Someone else can do it," Ochako told her. "This is really important and you're the only one that I trust to do such an important thing."

"Seriously?" One of the other makeup artist said. "Can't you wait?"

"I can't!" Ochako answered without looking away from Reiko. Her gaze was imploring and after a moment Reiko sighed.

"Can someone take over for me?" Reiko asked softed. "I'm sorry to be a burden, but-"

"Don't worry Reiko!" A blonde wearing fake horns waved her off. She was working on turning some girl entirely pink. "I'll cover for you."

"You don't have time to take anyone else's work, Tsunotori," one of the other's said.

"I can do it!" The blonde turned to the girl in her chair. "Tell them I can do it!"

"She can totally do it!" the pink girl cheered. "Give her a chance."

"Don't just..."

"Great!" Ochako smiled. She took hold of Reiko's shoulders and lead her out of the room. "I knew that I could count on you."

"Huh? You...you did?" Reiko questioned.

"Of course. You're the best makeup artist that I know." Ochako didn't bother pointing out that Reiko was the only makeup artist on set that she had worked with. That would be completely beside the point.

When they got inside her dressing room, Reiko went straight to the makeup table. "If you give me a moment I can start-"

"No, no, not that stuff yet." Ochako dumped the contents of her bag on the table, letting the makeup she'd brought from home spill out. Various lipsticks, eye shadows, foundation, blush, everything she had was spread out before her. She turned a determined look to Reiko. "I need you to make me look irresistible."

"But... the shoot," Reiko objected softly.

"We can worry about that later," Ochako said. "We've got tons of time, but I need to be as attractive as possible to catch Izuku's attention."

Reiko's eyes widened. "What?"

Ochako looked Reiko in her eyes as she stated, "Izuku and I shared a moment."

"A...moment?"

She nodded. "After we were finished the last episode. We stared deep into each other's eyes and I know that something sparked between us, but someone interrupted. He told me that you do the best work, too."

"He...he did?" Reiko questioned softly.

"Yes." Ochako clasped her hands together and closed her eyes as she remembered. They had shared so many moments together last time that just thinking about it made her heartbeat. "So I just know that if you make me look good, he'll fall all over himself for me."

"I... I don't think..."

Ochako looked at her with a smile. "So you'll do it, right?" She moved closer to Reiko and took her hands. "Please?"

"I... suppose," Reiko agreed.

"Yes!" Ochako clapped her hands together. "Thank you so much! I knew that I could count on you!"

* * *

When Izuku went to the break room, he was surprised to find that the tables were piled with boxes of doughnuts. There were quite a few people already lingering around the room. Someone was sleeping under one of the tables and Takeyama waved at him as she shoved a sweet into her mouth. She muffled a good morning to him, he thought she did at least, and he waved back.

"Oh good morning." A boy with red and white hair greeted him. "I'm Shouto Todoroki. It's nice to meet you."

"Oh, it's nice to meet you, too," Izuku answered. "I'm Izuku Midoriya."

"Would you like a doughnut?" he asked. "I bought them for everyone to celebrate. Let's all work hard today."

"You bought all these?" Izuku asked. He reached out to take a few, since there were so many, and sat down at a nearby table.

Todoroki moved to sit across from him. "Yeah. My father is also part of the cast. He's playing one of the pro heroes."

"Cool," Izuku said between bites of food. "My dad's the director."

Todoroki was really friendly and talkative. Izuku was pretty sure he was the most normal and sane cast member that he'd met so far, which was a relief. He shouldn't be so surprised that so many eclectic people ended up as actors, but was it too much to ask that a few more be normal?

"Good morning, Izuku," Ochako called out as she entered the room.

Apparently it was.

Izuku gave her a halfhearted wave. "Hey."

He didn't expect her to sit right next to him, or even at his table really, but she did just that, smiling at him brightly. It was a little off putting and Izuku moved away from her subtly. "What are you doing?" she asked him.

"I would have thought that'd be obvious," he replied, taking another bite of his doughnut.

"Good morning," Todoroki greeted her with a smile. "I'm Shouto Todoroki."

"Oh, hi." Ochako barely glanced at him. Izuku shoved the rest of his doughnut in his mouth, contemplating making an excuse to bow out of the conversation.

"You there!" Choppy Arms entered the room with a loud exclamation, stiffly marching towards one of the other tables. "Think of your other coworkers and leave some for them." He was threatening Takeyama with his Kung Fu grip, chopping the air over and over in front of her.

Takeyama was entirely unimpressed. She looked him in his eye as she slowly lifted another doughnut, taking one from the box despite having one already on her plate, and taking a large bite.

Karate Chop looked so taken aback that Izuku nearly burst out laughing.

"Something funny, Midoriya?" Todoroki questioned. He tried to follow Izuku's gaze, but he didn't know what was so funny about watching his cousin- Katsuki's cousin!- refuse manners from a robot.

Izuku tried to contain his laughter so that he could explain. "So, that guy," he gestured to Choppy. "That guy is a robot."

"Huh?"

"What?" Ochako's voice was louder than Todoroki's, but seeing the surprise on her face was very satisfying. "No way!"

"Do you have proof otherwise?" Izuku asked.

"Who is that?" Todoroki asked.

Izuku shrugged. "I don't know. I've been calling him Choppy Arms. Or Karate Chop. Or... well, it doesn't matter. Look at how he moves, though! Tell me you don't think he's a robot."

"This is entirely inappropriate behavior," Choppy Arms was still attempting to scold Takeyama. She'd moved into a reclining position with her legs thrown over the table's edge and was giving him a lazy smile.

"He does sound pretty robotic," Ochako admitted.

"I'm almost positive that they gave his part to a robot to help it evolve far enough to learn sentience or something," Izuku told them.

"That can't be right," Todoroki said. The three of them were all watching the spectacle that Kung Fu Grip was making. "Where would the studio get a robot?"

"Someone had to build it," Ochako said. "Maybe one of the special effects crew?"

"Mei didn't do it, but I haven't asked anyone else," Izuku told them.

"Hmm. Can we test it?" she wondered out loud.

"Hold on," Todoki said. He stood up, picking up an empty plate and putting a doughnut on it before moving toward Choppy. "Hello, I'm Shouto Todoroki. I'm the one that bought all of these doughnuts today and I wanted to offer you one in greeting."

"Ah. I am Tenya Iida. It is good to meet such a considerate coworker. I am very grateful for your offering." Karate Chop bowed at the waste, very formal, very stiff. He accepted the plate. Both Izuku and Ochako leaned forward in interest. Todoroki's expectant smile went a long way toward encouraging the Action Figure to pick up the treat.

"Think he'll really do it?" Ochako asked.

"He has to if he wants to prove he's human," Izuku replied.

"What's this?" A loud voice from the doorway stole everyone's attention. Present Mic and All Might entered the room. "Whoa! Who brought all these doughnut?"

"This looks like a job for All Might!" The man announced as he strode toward one of the tables.

"Shut up," Toshinori scolded. He was walking in All Might's shadow, a space that he seemed to occupy often and Izuku wondered if it was done on purpose or not. "You're too loud. It's giving me a headache."

"You two!" Action Figure put down his plate and marched toward the new arrivals. "You are causing too much of a disruption." It would be unfair to say that his shouting was a loud as theirs, nothing was as loud as Present Mic or All Might, but the fact remained that he was yelling. Someone should adjust his voice modulator. "You should be ashamed of yourselves. As responsible adults I demand that you show more consideration for to the rest of us."

Todoroki wandered back over to them as the loudest people in the room continued their back and forth. "He didn't eat it," Todoroki reported. Not that such a report was needed. Both Izuku and Ochako had already sagged in defeat.

"Damn, I wanted to know what would happen," Ochako sighed.

"Do you think he would have malfunctioned?" Izuku asked. "Or would he have just mashed it into his face because he doesn't understand eating protocols?"

"Hmm. You really think he's robotic?" Todoki wondered.

"I become more convinced all the time," Izuku admitted.

"Why all this noise?" The person that had been sleeping under the table sat up, staring at everyone with beary eyed displeasure. He was wrapped up in a sleeping bag, looking cozy and ridiculous in equal measures.

"It's Shota!" Present Mic announced, pointing at the man with both hands.

"Of course it's you," The human caterpillar groaned. "Who else would be this loud."

"I am here!" All Might added, as if in answer.

"Don't remind me." He looked up to see Toshinori and nodded at him. "Toshinori."

"Aizawa," Toshinori nodded back. "You still sleeping around all over the place."

Izuku saw Takeyama's head turn in their direction, suddenly interested in their conversation. He tried very hard to ignore the implication and pretend that she was reacting to something other than the obvious.

"Don't make it sound like that," Aizawa replied.

"How else should it sound?"

"Alright," Izuku said as he pushed himself out of his seat. "I'm gonna get out of here before I get a headache."

"It was nice to talk with you," Todoroki said. "I look forward to working with you,"

Izuku nodded. "Yeah, you too. I'm glad to have you around."

He was on his way out when he heard Ochako exclaim, "Oh no! My plan totally failed!"

Izuku didn't bother to wonder what plan she was talking about. He would probably be due on set soon and he should find Katsuki to tell him what he'd missed. He needed to know how close they'd come to learning the truth.

* * *

"Good work, young Midoriya!" All Might praised Izuku loudly when they finished filming their scene, patting him on the back hard enough to make him stumble.

"Watch your strength," Izuku complained. "You almost knocked me over."

All Might turned instantly repentant. "I'm sorry, are you okay? I don't know my own strength sometimes, I didn't mean to-"

"You're acting like Reiko," Izuku said.

"Young Reiko is fine lass!"

"That's... not really the point here." Izuku sighed. He walked off set, taking a water bottle offered by his dad.

Mei popped up next to him and asked excited, "Do you wanna see some blood?"

Izuku choked on his water. Hisashi pat his back as he coughed.

"I'm sure she means fake blood," Hisashi said in an attempt to soothe him. "Though I do not know why she would make such an offer anyway."

"It's a prop for All Might and Toshinori," Mei explained. "It was just used in the scene you just filmed."

"Mei, please do not corrupt my son with your rampant energy," Hisashi said.

"What does that mean?" she responded with a pout.

"Why would I want to look at fake blood?" Izuku asked once he'd stopped coughing.

"Because it's cool!"

"It's not." Izuku looked over his shoulder and called out, "Hey All Might! Hatsume wants to show you something."

All Might rushed to their side quickly, ending on a pose as dramatic as something his character would perform. Izuku suddenly wondered if All Might was written to be as dramatic as he was or if the character was made by the performance. "What is it, young Hatsume?"

"Wanna see some blood?"

Watching someone that big falter was pretty amusing. "B-blood?"

"Yeah!" She grabbed his arm. "You're done filming for now, right? Come on, I'll tell you how we get the texture right."

"I-I don't think this is the best idea..." All Might argued softly.

Mei had already launched into an explanation and wasn't hearing anything that All Might had to say.

"That was pretty devious of you," Katsuki said.

"It's fine. She's not gonna break him," he replied.

"You sure?" Katsuki questioned. "He doesn't look like he'll be okay."

"He will be."

* * *

Filming with a full cast was more difficult than Izuku had expected. There were a lot of re-shoots, since any one of them could do something wrong that caused the whole seen to be useless.

"Aizawa, stop going to sleep on set," Hisashi scolded.

They all looked to their "teacher" but he showed no signs of moving.

"Get your feet off of the desk!" Karate Chop scolded Katsuki.

Katsuki looked at him with confusion. "Huh?"

"There's no reason to stay in that position when we're not currently filming."

"Seriously?" The exasperation in Katsuki's voice was clear, but he still obeyed the ridiculous request and put his feet back on the floor.

Ochako raised her hand as she looked at the director, likely to assure that she got his attention. "Um, I don't think he's waking up."

"I'll do it! I'll do it!" A girl that Izuku had mentally dubbed Green Screen jumped up and down, waving her hand. She was wearing a green screen suit beneath a school because her character was supposed to be invisible. She had very expressive body language and that would probably help her character, though Izuku had a hard time picturing what it would look like in the finished project. "Someone toss me a bottle of water!"

"I've got one!" Another energetic girl, this one dipped in pink, approached Green Screen happily, offering the water bottle in triumph.

Their joy was doused quickly by Hisashi saying, "Do not pour water on him."

"Aww," both girls were audibly and visibly disappointed.

Karate Chop used his Kung Fu to wake their sleeping coworker. "This kind of behavior is very unprofessional of you! To fall asleep on the job is utterly unfathomable!"

It was probably the repeated chopping and not the long winded lecture that woke Aizawa, but the man didn't make any acknowledging gestures. Instead, once his eyes opened, he quietly lifted a juice box from his sleeping bag and sipped on it.

"Don't ignore me!" Choppy objected, doubling down on his Kung Fu action as his scolding increased. Izuku couldn't actually tell if there was any impact, since the blows rained down so quickly and Aizawa didn't react to them in the slightest.

"Is it really okay for you to be hitting him like that?" A spiky red head asked. Izuku was disappointed in the lack of apparent nicknaming fodder, but he did vaguely remember this guy. Izuku was fairly certain they talked when they filmed the opening credits, but that was so long ago, it almost didn't factor. Was it worth it to remember someone he couldn't give a nickname to?

Watching Karate Chop back pedal so readily was pretty humorous though. He spit apologies rapidly and loudly, doing more of those stiff bows that made Izuku wonder if his joints were calibrated correctly.

"Alright, back to your places everyone," Hisashi told them. "Aizawa, please do not fall asleep and miss your cue this time."

Aizawa just grunted in acknowledgement.

* * *

That was only the first of many interventions from the director. Izuku went from being annoyed by all the interruptions to amused by his crew mates antics.

"Aoyama, stop looking directly at the camera."

"This stunt is rather dangerous, don't you think? Maybe I should have my stunt double doing this," he winked at the camera. Or the cameraman. Izuku still couldn't tell. Was it even the same cameraman? Was there an illicit affair secretly going on right before his eyes?

"All you have to do is jump backwards." Hisashi sounded exhausted and Izuku didn't envy him.

"I don't want to hurt my tooshie." Izuku was pretty sure they all felt the same amount of disgust with him as a person in that moment.

"Oh? Something like that is too much for you? How pathetic can you be?" Monoma appeared out of nowhere to mock them, laughing madly. He was wearing contacts and a wig to look like his fellow narcissist, and he quickly took the belt from around his waist.

"Monoma, just... do the stunt," Hisashi said in exasperation.

"He's a stunt double?" Katsuki questioned quietly. Apparently not quietly enough, since Monoma responded.

"I do all the heavy lifting around here!"

If Izuku was honest though, filming with Monoma was not worse than having to deal with a dandy.

...

"Tooru, did you just throw your shoes across the finish line?" Hisashi's voice bordered on incredulous.

"No, I ran!"

"Tooru... you're not actually invisible... I can see you."

"You can't prove that to me."

Hisashi rubbed at his temples and Izuku felt for his dad.

...

"Mic, don't ad lib your narration."

"I was trying to add some spice to the scene!"

"You already recorded your lines for this scene!"

"Ack!"

...

Then there were the times when everyone else started to complain about each other's performance, too. It started with Aizawa ad libbing a few lines and Choppy taking offense to it. Then someone made a comment about "the main character" being lame and Katsuki took offense to that. Then before Izuku knew what was happening, Ochako was chasing the others around and yelling about them "picking on" him, and Katsuki had wrapped him in a hug, telling him over and over that he could be a hero.

Izuku just sighed and let it happen. He wondered if the rest of the cast would be surprised when they found out how different he was from his character. He wondered if they were surprised to see how different Katsuki was from his character.

"Take it easy, Kacchan," Izuku said, just to poke at his best friend a little.

Katsuki looked at him like he'd been betrayed.

* * *

Once they'd finished filming, Izuku waited for Katsuki. One of the guys that Ochako had chased around for joking about his character had slung an arm over Katsuki's shoulder. The guy was blond and wearing a repentant look that lead Izuku to think that he was apologizing. Either way, Katsuki didn't look much more than confused as he approached.

"Hey, Katsuki. Did you aquire a new growth?" Izuku asked with a smile.

"Yeah, this guy wanted to apologize for earlier," Katsuki explained.

"Hey. I'm Denki Kaminari," The guy raised two fingers to his head in a salute and winked.

"And I'm Mina Ashido!" The pink girl announced, suddenly pouncing on Katsuki from the other side.

"Wha?" Katsuki muttered in confusion before cutting himself off in surprise as Green Screen jumped up in front of them.

"And I'm Tooru Hagakure!"

"Mina, why do you always try to move in on my territory," Kaminari asked. He was giving her a teasing smile.

Mina returned the smile with a wink. "I'm just here to give you a hard time."

"You two are friends, huh?" Izuku asked, pointing between them. He would admit that if Katsuki was going to start hanging out with other cast members, having some of the most interesting ones would be the best choice. Izuku could already see amusing possibilities.

"Yep! We've been friends for years," Mina answered.

"Unfortunately," Kaminari added.

Green Screen jumped on Mina and gave her a hug. "And I'm friends with her!"

"We auditioned together," Mina explained.

"Why are you all crowding me?" Katsuki asked. His confusion was kinda priceless.

Green screen moved closer to poke him in cheek. "Because you're cool!" she said.

"How so?" Katsuki asked with a frown. "My character is a bully."

"An egostical asshole in fact," Kaminari added..

Green Screen posed dramatically with a hand over her heart. "Because you're sensative."

"What?" Katsuki looked entirely confused.

"Probably because you insist on hugging me whenever your character hurts your feelings," Izuku said teasingly. "He and I auditioned together, too. I was trying out for the asshole and he wanted to be the main character, but they thought that he looked more intimidating."

"Is that so? Hmm..." Mina placed her hand on her chin and studied them both closely.

Kaminari placed a hand on her forehead and pushed her face away. "Don't crowd him like that."

"You're one to talk," Green Screen said in a sing song tone.

Mina just giggled.

Izuku decided it would be cruel not to rescue his best friend at this point. He reached out for Katsuki's hand and pulled him from Kaminari's arms. Izuku made a show of dusting him off and petting Katsuki's head just so that Katsuki would get mad and tell him to knock it off. Katsuki could be a pushover sometimes, but he was comfortable enough with Izuku to express himself and Izuku wanted to make him look good in front of his potential new friends. That meant making him look like someone that couldn't be easily taken advantage of.

"Come on, Izuku, help me find my cousin so I can get out of here," Katsuki said.

"You have family on set?" Mina asked.

The five of them continued talking as they wandered around the studio. They ended up finding Takeyama in the break room chatting with Toshinori, which resulted in their group sitting down to listen to their friendly banter. At some point Todoroki showed up and started talking to everyone, then Choppy arrived and that sparked a conversation about his robotic origins. It was a lively way to end the day, but Izuku was sure he would be exhausted if this was how every shoot ended.


End file.
